Nightfall
by AbyssalCaesar
Summary: As darkness descends on Aether, the planet's last defender U-Mos awaits the inevitable end. R&R   Have now made a few corrections and sorted out the paragraphing


**This is a short piece i concoted one afternoon and entails a look at what would have happened if Samus had failed and only U-Mos was left to see Aether's doom. Read and Review please. (Have fixed the paragraphing to make it easier on the eyes)**

**Nightfall**

U-Mos floated above the ground his gaze fixated on the skies of Aether at times blue and idyllic at times purple and ominous. He could hear the sadness of his world as its life was leeched away by the creatures of darkness. He could sense the shadow where once the light of Aether had shined so bright and could feel the void that would be left by his home when it was consumed by its dark twin and vanished from the cosmos.

Below him in the Temple Sanctuary his brothers and sisters slept while the Child of the Chozo fought for her life against an agent of the Ing. He could see in his mind's eye as the young woman backed away from the gigantic black and purple form of a Dark Alpha Splinter. Its solitary eye burnt with hatred of all beings of the light and the Energy Transfer Module it carried would spell doom for Aether. It screeched and spat a blob of dark acid at the hunter who dodged and fired a missile at the beast which nimbly leapt out of the way. It howled and leapt crashing onto the hunter and ravaging her with it enormous scythe like claws. The woman screamed in pain as it proceeded to repeatedly pierce her body with its razor sharp appendages. The beast leapt off allowing its prey to stagger to her feet. The hope of the Luminoth stood facing her killer, her suit having vanished revealing her battered and bleeding body encased in her zero suit. She had enough time to fall to her knees before the Splinter pounced on her and removed her head from its shoulders with its powerful mandibles.

U-Mos knew in that instant Aether was doomed.

The beast was making its way to fight him and take the last of Aether's energy for its own and no one, save him, now stood to stop it. He prepared for the final battle in the long siege that had been going on since the last of the Keybearers had fallen in their desperate mission to save Aether. His sleeping brethren would have no idea what had transpired and their cryo pods were designed to shut down their life-support if U-Mos died, to avoid them falling into the Ing's hands.

He heard the hatch open and lowered his gaze from the sky to face the monster that had just arrived. The Dark Alpha Splinter, perhaps sensing victory, wasted little time in charging at him leaping into the air. U-Mos muttered a quick prayer and flew to meet it blasting it back with a wall of pure light. The Darkling was hurled to the ground but righted itself and spat a projectile of acid which evaporated harmlessly on U-Mos' force field. U-Mos moved forward in a blur and plunged his hand deep into the Ing's head burning it away from the inside out. Lifting its dying form he hurled it to the ground. Suddenly the creature found a spurt of strength and threw itself upon the Energy Controller. U-Mos screamed in anguish and darted forward as the last of Aether's energy was drained away. His attempt to save his world was foiled by a dark barrier that had erected itself and U-Mos could only look on through the swirling clouds as the energy was drained and both the Alpha Splinter and the Energy Controller melted into an oozing puddle that had appeared on the room's floor. The blue sphere of the Energy Transfer Module floated above the puddle, suspended in mid-air, when a large tentacle, with a hardened, spiked end, erupted from the puddle.

The Emperor had arrived.

More tentacles appeared and the Energy Transfer Module disappeared as the writhing tendrils ensnared it. The rounded lumpy head of the Emperor emerged next and glowered down at him with a hatred and contempt that burnt into U-Mos as ferociously as any flame. U-Mos felt as though he had been reduced to the size of a worker splinter in the face of this abomination of the cosmos that continued to emerge from the puddle sprouting another forest of tentacles from its base which rapidly began spreading out over the temple floor. It roared an ancient howl that spoke of unmatchable malic and a cruel intellect before a cloud of dark particles began emanating from its head spreading out and growing impenetrable blocking out U-Mos' last glimpse of the sky. The entire horizon was covered by the shroud of the Ing's world and U-Mos watched in horror from his vantage point as an innumerable number of dark portals opened across the land and the Ing swarm, as numerous as the stars themselves swarmed through into their new home. Tiny Ing swarmlings slithered under the feet of the warrior Ing whilst huge darkling beasts, as large as star ships, walked through the portals into the world and towered over all. The world's native creatures were overran and subverted by a living carpet of horrors. The world was blanketed in an endless night and U-Mos realised in that moment Aether had truly died; replaced by this perverse mirror image.

U-Mos gathered the power of his ancestors, of his fallen race and his own unshakable sense of duty and rose up into the sky above the Emperor shrouded in the last Light Of Aether that now burnt as brightly as a thousand suns as if it were raging against the pitiable fate of its home. The Emperor beneath him had swollen out to be absolutely gargantuan and had completely absorbed the structure of the Great Temple into its body which had grown like a cancer over the holy structure. Some of its tentacles were as thick as tree trunks and its glowing eye had emerged at the head of its bloated form to survey its new kingdom. U-Mos could see the Emperor squint and snarl in the face of his radiance before it lashed out with its uncountable appendages.

Letting out a battles cry U-Mos plummeted down into the frenzied mass, light blazing off him with only one wish, the same wish he had had his whole life, to do his people proud.

**In summary, when playing Metroid Prime 2, don't lose to the Dark Alpha Splinter. :P**


End file.
